Are You Making Good Use of the Transparent Twitter Side Panel?

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Twitter recently redesigned our profile pages and although the result was, for the most part, quite an improvement, it did result in less space on the sides for all the cool custom Twitter backgrounds many of you are using. Although it’s still possible to use the background space creatively, that cute collage of family Christmas photos probably isn’t going to work out the way you’d hoped.

Fortunately, there is an option that can be just as effective. Twitter made the right side panel 70% transparent, so anything in the background shows through slightly. Below are a few quick examples I put together on my test page to give you some ideas. I used a generic Twitter background to focus on the side panel but you’ll probably want to make use of the entire background.

Edit: I found a simple little hack that lets you make the right side panel 100% transparent. Click here to find out how.

How about a nice picture of the area where you live or took your last vacation, or maybe a picture of your kids, or, if you’re a company, why not show your logo or product?

The trick is in making sure the image in your background lines up in the correct spot and depending on the viewer’s monitor resolution, they may not see the image exactly as you do so plan for different monitor sizes.

Click any of the images to view full size to get a better idea of how effective this technique can be.

If you’d like to share your own background or have seen any really creative ones, please post them in the comments.

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